Do they really teach?

8 Replies - 1003 Views - Last Post: 16 April 2009 - 11:10 AM

Define Tutorials?

Posted 15 April 2009 - 02:59 PM

I made this topic advanced because it deals with seriously difficult topics like how to "teach" people what they want to learn from the tutorial.

So Bob decided to learn Visual Basic 6 because he though programing was fun. Bob opened up VB6 and made a new project. Bob then went to Google and asked how dose the timer work in vb6. Bob quickly got a page that said "vb6 timer tutorial". so Bob when there. Bob read what this page had to teach him. or what it was supposed to teach him. it explained what a timer was and how it was a loop and all that stuff. Bob sat there and still didn't understand.

This happens to a lot of people all the time because the people who make there tutorials don't take the time to "TEACH" the person reading it. When i want a tutorial i want something that tells me a list of properties and what they do in plain English (or whatever language you speak) I want to know how i can use this give me an example. I want you to inform me on every single aspect of information you can tell me about a timer in english. i want to know how it operates how to use the properties how the properties act and once you have done so give the reader (student) a assignment that interprets how to use the class (referring to timer).

I hope this gets out there somehow.

tutorials are only good 1% of the time because they don't teach stuff.

If anyone know where i can find C++ tutorials that teach me every bit and byte of a topic in c++ without saying o ill save that for later in the tutorials. please post a link here it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for putting up with my S***!

Re: Define Tutorials?

Posted 15 April 2009 - 03:16 PM

It certainly is a tightrope to walk. I don't think a play by play narrative would be an effective venue of which to convey information. If you need step by step instruction on how to do that, nearly all major IDEs provide "how to" sections. Programming tutorials (at least mine) are geared for a certain purpose/audience/demographic. Most of the time I'll state what the reader should know before proceeding. If they disregard that, then its on them.

In a broader sense, there's a whole other realm regarding how people learn. I'm a reader. I can pick up a textbook and teach myself most anything. My brother for example, cannot do that. Some people are visual, some are audible, so on and so forth. If you are not a reading learner you may want to find another method of instruction (a teacher, a video, etc...).

Re: Define Tutorials?

Posted 15 April 2009 - 03:31 PM

Thanks for posting sorry if i did really bad spelling but i am not ashamed of it because it reflect me. I tried tuts for c++ but i already knew what a if statement was how to add stuff and so on i can always look at the nifty cheat sheet if i need to know that stuff. so i got lazy i went and got some books tried using em but they never compiled what they told me. i returned the books and now I'm here ripping my hair out because i want to learn. i know i learn better from audio or video. i would like to take classes online that are free. the only ones i found so far are locked and i need to talk to the teacher before i get a key or something like that. and finding a video to teach me something is just frustrating because there people use web cams or programs that you cant read the text on screen or have an accent that is hard to understand or they use big words like operand and stuff like that i was never told the definition of operand.

So i would like to ask Do you know Where i can find an online class that will teach me C or C++ or a video lesson or even a recording. And even a tutorial online that would overwhelm a novice. I think i learn better if i have a mountain of stuff i can go back to to learn whenever i need to know something.

Re: Define Tutorials?

Posted 15 April 2009 - 03:57 PM

Tutorials help me out all the time with new things I want to learn. If youre starting from scratch i much rather use a book then an online source. the main reason being anyone can put crap online, at least in book form you know it went through some sort of review process.

Re: Define Tutorials?

Posted 16 April 2009 - 11:10 AM

If you are really that bad of a reader,
to the point you can read a book over
and over and can't get anything out of it
I'm going to say good luck. Especially
cause you mention Online classes, take
it from me, Online classes all it means is
Here is your book, read it learn it, if you
need help I'm here for you.

The classes that i've taken are for the plain
reason to be able to say, Hey look i took this
class i passed this, it proves that i can do it.

ABOUT THE TUTORIALS:
Tutorials the way i see them are quick
explanations on an specific topic, you can't
expect that every time you read a tutorial
it will be a book about the subject.
Most tutorials require a background on the
subject in order to be able to learn from them.

You can't expect to pick up a Calculus book and
lean much without knowing algebra.